


Leap

by JaqofSpades



Category: Dance Academy
Genre: 12 days of Ficmas 2014, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-30
Updated: 2014-12-30
Packaged: 2018-03-04 08:27:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3047597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JaqofSpades/pseuds/JaqofSpades
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If there's anything she knows how do, it's leap.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Leap

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lodessa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lodessa/gifts).



> So lodessa made me watch Dance Academy. I'm four episodes in and will admit to being a little intrigued. Mostly a) haven't seen Sydney onscreen in a while! And b) how wonderful to see actual teenagers playing teenagers on TV. Sure, there's the odd older ring-in, but the 15 year old lead is played by … wait for it … a 15 year old. Shocking :D

*

“It's not naked,” Kat teases as she strips her t-shirt over her head and leaves it in a pile on the dock. “Unless you're not wearing anything underneath,” she giggles and jumps from one leg to the other with excitement.

“Come on, T!”

Tara rolls her eyes and takes off her t-shirt, wishing she'd at least worn pretty underwear. (Kat's bra is red with white polkadots – _so_ cute. And grown up. No one would ever accuse her of wearing a training bra.) But she hadn't exactly expected to be jumping into Sydney Harbour in her underwear at 9 o'clock at night when she got dressed that morning, so … whatever.

Serves her right for being friends with a girl like Kat, a voice suspiciously like Abigail's sniffs somewhere inside her head. Is her first year of the Academy really the time to be trying to hang out with the cool girls? Who is she trying to fool?

Tara tells her inner bitch to shut up, and focuses on how much fun she's having. Standing next to Kat Karamakov is like touching the electric fence – dangerous, maybe, but _alive_. Jangling with energy. Worth the occasional shock.

She had met girls like Kat before. A girl, anyway. She'd sat a seat behind Tracey Donaldson, Gundabooka's resident cool chick. Even saw her out of school sometimes – Tracey's Dad had been the local vet, and she'd do his rounds with him in the hols. When you've got several thousand sheep, a couple of hundred head of cattle, six horses, four dogs, two cats and a wallaby about the place, you see the vet a lot. But Tracey wasn't really into dancing, and Tara wasn't into smoking behind the boys toilets and sneaking into R-rated movies, so they never really connected, you know?

There might also have been a little voice that whispered Tara wasn't cool enough, brave enough, daring enough to hang out with someone like Tracey, and that's kinda sad, now. Because she ignored that voice (and Abigail) to get to know Kat, and Kat's like … the most wonderful person she knows. Way cooler than Tracy ever was. And so much fun.

And maybe Tara is the brave one.

Because Kat's eyes are huge now, and Tara can feel her quaking as they hold hands and stare down at the black water several metres below. She's stuttering something about sharks – which is silly, Tara tells herself, because there can't be sharks in Sydney Harbour, that's just an urban legend, right? - but really, she's looking for an excuse to back out.

Tara's not.

Now that she's told herself she's doing it, now that she's stripped down to her bra and undies, now that she's standing up here feeling the sea breeze tickle her skin …

She's looking forward to it. The leap.

Flying.

And if there's anything a girl from the country knows how to do, it's how to leap into the unknown. You don't grow up out back of Bourke – like, literally – and ever expect to stay. Everybody leaves, and some don't even come home for the holidays after a while. Life on the farm stays golden and uncorrupted, while out there – out here – real life awaits.

And it's scary and confusing and so, so different to everything you've ever known, but there's nothing for it. You just have to close your eyes, and leap.

(Besides, it's only a short drop. Back home, they would cannonball into the swimming hole from the top of the waterfall on Binnawarra Creek, and that was twice this, easy.)

(No sharks, though.)

 _As if_ , Tara snorts, and turns to Kat, squeezing her hand. “Come on. On three.”

And they leap.

 

_fin_


End file.
